Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy
by Mat Pullen
Summary: Instead of fighting Ember during 'Fanning the Flames' Danny does something else. Showing off a hidden skill he manages to subdue Ember without a fight. How will this change the future? Read and find out!


Daniel James Fenton was not having a good day. First, he had been up all night fighting the many non-sentient ghosts and talking to the sentient ones that slipped through the portal. Then his mom decided to come up from the lab for once and cook breakfast, breakfast that sadly came to life as she had used one of her crazy 'inventions' instead of the almost brand new stove to cook it. Finally, Sam was in a horrible mood because most of the school had been fixated on a new musician by the name of Ember. His Goth friend hated Ember's music almost instantly after hearing it, and he really couldn't see why. Her debut single Remember was a little on the pop-y side for his and definitely Sam's tastes, but every other song she put out was a lot more on the hard rock side of things. To be completely honest, he was pretty sure why Sam hated Ember's music, but that was not something that he really wanted to get in to with her.

Putting Sam's mildly creepy obsessive crush on him out of his head, he continued with his day. He and Tucker had heard through the grapevine that Lancer had sweet-talked his way into getting some experimental 'study helmets' from some research students at the local university and was planning on using it to try and boost test scores on the upcoming Midwestern Standardized Test. Danny was decidedly not looking forward to it, last time Lancer had tried something like this he had spent the next week with everything tasting like burnt toast, and a strange ringing in his right ear. All in all, not a good time.

Getting to his locker he saw Sam and Tucker arguing like normal, it was honestly all the two did if he wasn't around, and he was kind of sick of it. Sighing he put a smile on his face and walked up to the two.

"Hey guys!" said Danny giving a small wave to his friends as he approached.

"Danny!" both Sam and tucker yelled turning to the Halfa.

"She!" sneered Tucker gesturing to their Goth friend, "Refuses to accept that Ember is a good artist!"

"No! I said that she was just a corporate sell out. Not that she was a bad musician, even though she is!" said Sam, turning her nose up at tucker.

Knowing that if he didn't step in now that both Sam and Tucker would continue this incredibly stupid argument until he did, Danny put his two cents in "Tucker, Sam is entitled to her own option as much as you are, so next time she disagrees with you please just ignore it."

"See, he agrees with me, right Danny?"

"Sam, the same thing I said to tucker applies to you also. And to be honest I actually like most of Ember's music, yeah Remember is a little on the pop-y side for me, but it's not a bad song."

Huffing angrily Sam turns away from her friends and marches off towards class "whatever, see you two in class." She calls over her shoulder.

Sighing, tucker turns to his best friend, "sorry, man. I didn't think that she'd get this angry over something as simple as music choice."

"Its ok dude, I'm used to it at this point. And to be honest I think that Sam dislikes Ember for other reasons then her music." Said Danny, the bags under his eyes, and the tiredness in his voice showing that while he was used to it wore on him. Grabbing his stuff from his locker the two teens followed their friend to class.

It seemed that the rumours that he and tucker had heard where true when they got to the classroom the first thing that they saw was the large amount of equipment and machinery that was stuffed into the relatively small classroom. There was so much that the normal desks that usually sat in the room had been moved out of the classroom and replaced with a small bank of computers with three screens and a keyboard attached.

"Assigned seating is still in effect everyone," called Mr. Lancer from the front of the class, "please sit in the same spot you normally would."

Tucker and Danny simply looked at each other, and then back at the large amount of computer equipment strewn throughout the room and blinked. They honestly couldn't believe that Mr. Lancer would pull something like this again after the last time, had he really not learned his lesson. Shaking their heads in exasperation the two simply took their seats.

"as you know, the Northwest Nine Standardized Test is in just two days, and seeing as your scores decide my bonus, I've decided to install the CramTastic Mk. 5 in an attempt to boost test scores," said lancer in his normal bored tone. The rest of the class just stared blankly at him, whatever this CramTastic Mk. 5 did, it probably wasn't going to boost their test scores.

"if you would put on the helmets connected to your respective CramTastic unit we can begin." Continued lancer giving the class a few minutes to place the helmets on the helmets on their heads. Giving the room a quick once over to make sure that everyone had their helmets on, lancer hit the rather oversized start button.

A quick spark and the sound of a dial-up modem was the only sign that the CramTastic Mk. 5 was working. Several seconds passed before the screens lit up, the logo of an owl wearing one of the helmets flashed on the screen for a moment before being replaced with a rather worryingly long disclaimer. Apparently one of the common side effects of prolonged use was the deletion of the user's personality, happiness and sense of self, not that much different then prolonged time spent in Casper High if one were being honest.

The screens flashed with equations, graphs, and all sorts of math and science questions for several seconds before being dominated by Ember McLain's logo. The dull rhythmic hum that had been coming out of the speakers present on the helmet switched almost instantly to the opening bars of Remember.

Mr. Lancer put into a stupor for a moment rushed to turn off the CramTastic Mk. 5, ejecting the CD that was supposed to have the program for the math portion of the Northwestern Nine Test study guide on he found the problem. The CD had been replaced by Embers debut album.

The CramTastic had been turned off, but the music continued. Using the ember CD as an improvised weapon Lancer threw it at Tucker hand, which had his PDA in it.

"Foley! Turn off that blasted PDA!" yelled Mr. Lancer, his face red with anger.

"It isn't me!"

The song just got louder. A scream of excitement was heard from outside, a semi pulling a makeshift stage had stopped in front of the school, and Ember and her band were using it.

The majority of the class ran out trying to get a closer look at the show going on. Danny, who would rather keep his personality and what little happiness he had left intact slipped out with them. The halls were so packed with students that it took almost two minutes for Danny to get outside, Ember was just finishing up her first song as he got out the doors.

"Hello, Amity Park! Are you ready to rock?!" Yelled Ember, her flaming ponytail flaring slightly as the crowd cheered in response. "For our next set, Witching Hour*. Hit IT." Yelled Ember stomping on one of the pedals in front of her and starting the song.

Danny pushed his way up to the front of the crowd, he really didn't want to miss this, it was one of his favourite of Embers songs. Throwing up a pair of horns, he bobbed his head along with the song, a wide smile splitting his face. It had been quite some time since he had last been to a concert and he could say that this little impromptu performance was great.

Scanning the group of adoring fans in front of her, Ember let a smirk cross her face. This plan was working so far. A little mind control and the local teens were absolutely loving her music, she was more than a little disappointed that she couldn't woo them without using the brainwashing, but hey, fans were fans. That's when she felt it, one of the people in the crowd _wasn't_ under her spell, and was still _loving_ her music. She didn't know why that fact surprised her but it brought a genuine smile to her face, and the power boost she got from just that one fan was extreme, it made the combined power that she got from the rest of the crowd seem like a match compared to a forest fire.

She had to know just who was giving her this much of a boost. Scanning the crowd again, she found him. Right in the front row, dark hair, blue eyes and a massive grin spanning his face. He didn't look like much at first glance, a little on the scrawny side about average height, it would be easy to overlook him in a crowd, but once she got a good look at him she couldn't tear her eyes away. She was going to give _Baby-Pop_ here a great show.

Redoubling her efforts, she put her all into her music. If she had someone that actually enjoyed her music in the crowd then she was going to make it special for them. Or at least she would have, had a fat balding man with a megaphone not interrupted her.

"Attention freakishly dressed teen idol!" yelled Mr. Lancer into his megaphone "I order you to cease and desist"

Glaring at the man Ember smirks. "Sorry to disappoint, but according to grandpa I gotta 'cease and desist', but I'll leave you with these parting words. SICK 'EM" yelled the teen idol stomping on another pedal, this one caused a plume of smoke to rise up obscuring Ember and her band from sight. Turning away from the now obscured stage, the students' attention fell on the now sweating Mr. Lancer. Interrupting a teen idol who had a lot of sway with the students may have not been his best move.

"Uh, help?" he stuttered before a large group of the now angry students ran towards him. Knowing that his only chance of surviving the wrath of this students was to run, Lancer kicked it into high gear.

Those that had chosen not to go after lancer stood, still staring at the stage hoping that the concert would continue. But as the smoke cleared their hopes were dashed, Ember and her band where nowhere to be seen.

Well, it was good while it lasted though Danny making his way back into the school. It looked like lancer was going to get his wish and take what little happiness he had left and crush it under the weight of standardized test. Not to mention the fact that he still had to deal with the ensuing fight between Tucker and Sam that the concert would undoubtedly cause. The rest of Danny's day was shaping up to be rough.

 ***the song is Witching Hour by Blackbriar. They are who I almost always have playing when I'm writing stuff for Ember.**


End file.
